Union flap over UC Merced / Labor pact for construction

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Billboards in the Merced area oppose UC Merced's proposal to use a project labor agreement during construction. The pact would set hours and working conditions for workers building the new campus

Billboards in the Merced area oppose UC Merced's proposal to use a project labor agreement during construction. The pact would set hours and working conditions for workers building the new campus

Union flap over UC Merced / Labor pact for construction

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A bitter battle has erupted over a proposal to use a union project labor agreement on the construction of the University of California's 10th campus in Merced.

Supporters say project labor agreements, which are negotiated by trade unions, help ensure that jobs are finished on time and on budget by setting common work hours, holidays and a system to solve problems and avoid strikes. Critics say the agreement would largely cut out local workers from one of the largest construction projects ever in the Central Valley -- unless they joined a union or paid union fees.

None of the first nine UC campuses was built with a such an agreement, and opponents say it is being pushed this time by unions in Sacramento who contribute generously to the governor and Democratic state legislators.

Local workers have been waiting years for a chance at the project, which is scheduled for groundbreaking May 3 on the $225 million first phase.

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Although nonunion, or merit shops, can still bid on the project, many say that a project labor agreement will discourage them and benefit unions.

"Their intent is to have everybody on that job paying union dues and fees, and they want everybody paying into the union trust fund," said Kevin Dayton of the Associated Builders and Contractors. "They are trying to cut competition and give unions a monopoly on the job."

The UC regents have the final say and may discuss the issue tomorrow when they are scheduled to vote to move construction of the Merced campus forward. But UC Merced officials are already in negotiations on a project labor agreement with the local Building Trades Council, a union organization.

Clifford Graves, vice chancellor of physical planning at UC Merced, said the campus is keeping the nonunion workers in mind in the negotiations.

"There are ways to fashion the agreement to open the job up," Graves said.

The agreement, he said, might benefit the university.

"There are opportunities for efficiency and predictability in terms of schedule, which is important to us," he said.

The regents have been deluged by letters from opponents.

State Sen. Dick Monteith, R-Modesto, wrote in a letter that 82 percent of the Central Valley's construction workers are nonunion, and with the agreement,

the campus would have to reach outside the area for contractors.

"This would, in effect, eliminate a majority of the contracts for working men and women of the San Joaquin valley," he said.

Regent Ward Connerly said the opposition in the valley is "overwhelming."

"The university is going to have to live with those people for a long time to come," Connerly said.

"Project labor agreements have been in place since the Shasta Dam was built in the 1930s," Balgenorth said. "These were not political tools; these are being used by people who are trying to build huge, complex projects saying we need some standardization."

But nonunion employers who work on the project and have a pension program for their workers may have to divert pension and fringe benefit payments from their company program to a union trust. Most workers would lose the money if they left the union after the project.

Mark Cauwels, president of the nonunion Modern Air Mechanical Contractors in Merced, said he can't bid on the job because it would mean he would have to pay both into his company pension plan and the union plan.

"We have a chance now for jobs in our own backyard," said Cauwels, whose workers regularly have to drive as far as Livermore for projects. "We are not asking for any kind of edge. We are just asking for it to be fair."